


Halloween

by penscritch



Series: Wizardess Heart collection [8]
Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: F/M, Halloween, costumes based on event CGs, hint of pre-slash/gen Luca/Elias or Yukiya/Elias, random Randy sighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5029201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penscritch/pseuds/penscritch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elias is roped into the Halloween celebration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> For a jambajunkie-inspired plot bunny involving the Halloween event stories and how the MC got Elias into the mummy costume. See here for details: http://poetscript.tumblr.com/post/130121823528/wh-halloween-event#notes  
> Admittedly, it got a life of its own while I wrote it so some things changed a bit. XD

Elias gazed at the stacks of books surrounding him with a sense of deep despair. None of them helped his current problem. Why didn’t anyone write a book about how to deal with social situations like what to wear for a Halloween party?!

It all started because Lena practically skipped into the classroom with the most ridiculously pleased grin on her face. Apparently she was the only wizard in her village, so she hadn’t ever experienced a traditional wizard-style Halloween celebration and was especially enthusiastic about the upcoming school-hosted party.

“Will you be coming, Elias?” she’d asked, so bright and happy that he found himself saying “Yes,” before he could think better of it.

And so here Elias was, hours later and surrounded by books. He wanted to refuse upon second thought -- he really didn’t see the point of celebrating Halloween other than avoiding tricks played by Halloween monsters -- but thinking about the disappointed look on Lena’s face made him flinch. It would be like kicking some cute, fluffy little animal.

That landed Elias in his current dilemma: what to wear for a Halloween celebration.

He vaguely recalled dressing up with his older brother as pirates when they were both very small for one of the grown-up Halloween parties their parents attended. It had involved a lot of cake and hiding away from the ladies trying to pinch his cheeks. In a grossly unfair act by the universe, none of them dared pinch Klaus’.

Elias would like nothing better than to avoid an experience like that again (though now he was significantly older and taller, the problem was more about avoiding a different kind of attention – that of his fangirls), but there was Lena to think of. He didn’t want to make his friend sad. Not to mention that his brother would take maybe ten years to forgive him for making his girlfriend unhappy.

He shuddered.

Okay. He could do this. He would man up and attend his first Halloween celebration since he’d grown up enough to put his foot down about attending these kinds of events.

…But what was he going to wear?!

He ran a hand through his hair distractedly. Going as a pirate would be unacceptable. Klaus would inevitably remember they’d dressed up that way before and embarrass him in front of his friends by fondly recalling Little Elias. No. He didn’t want to go through that. A ninja? But he didn’t want to go as something that would recall that ex-exchange student from Hinomoto. Maybe some kind of mythological figure? Ugh, but costumes with those themes were always among the first to be snatched up by students borrowing from the drama club.

He’d need something easy to put together himself and original. He refused to wear something matching Klaus’ (he had enough of being compared to his brother) and he refused to wear something unoriginal and _uninspired_.

He cast his eyes about his side of the room distractedly. Yukiya was missing, presumably off on another one of his jaunts around the campus in search of open green spaces – he really liked nature. There were only books upon books in his side of the room and a neat sparseness on his roommate’s side. When asked, he’d admitted that he’d gotten a costume already but he kept quiet on what he’d chosen.

Elias turned back to his book fort. So far he’d come across all different kinds of facts about Halloween – how the celebration had originated, the Halloween monsters, and all sorts of miscellanea – but nothing about good costumes.

He had only until evening to come up with something for the celebration tonight, and it was already late noon. No pressure, Elias. Really.

…He should read something now. Anything. That always calmed him down.

Trying not to think too hard, he grabbed the latest book he was reading. It was a documentation by a famous archaeologist about his expedition to strange country full of sun and sand. He’d discovered a colossal statue of a sphinx and shortly afterward made his major discovery, the tomb of a young king, filled with treasure and priceless magical artifacts.

He blinked, and gears in his head turned.

Elias grinned, flipping to a page he remembered featuring an illustration of the lavishly dressed mummy and placed a careful marker at the spot.

He’d found his costume.

 

* * *

 

Elias barely made it in time. While his costume was incredibly simple, he had trouble getting the bandages to hang just right over his torso so it preserved his modesty. The point was to look good, not flash everyone with the sight of his bare chest. He clasped the transfigured gold collar around his neck and slid on resized armlets, all of them originally meant as the base materials for magical tools he hadn’t gotten around to making.

He ran down the stairs in a hurry. Elias Goldstein would _not_ be late. He had a perfect attendance record and meant to keep it that way, thank you very much.

(Luca was a disgrace.)

Unfortunately, he was in so much of a hurry he didn’t realize one of the bandages had unraveled and tangled beneath his feet, knocking him into a girl exiting one of the side corridors.

“Ouch!” she cried.

“Oof!” said Elias.

Fortunately, she managed to flail her way to the wall and steady herself before she landed on her rump the way Elias did. Still, Elias did his best to apologize; she wouldn’t have almost fallen if he hadn’t tripped on his costume.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, gingerly pushing himself up. He didn’t want another bit of undone bandage to cause him to fall again. “Are you all right?”

Elias blushed a little when she smiled warmly at him. She was very pretty. Her long white dress, though undecorated, rippled gracefully down her figure and her long soft hair had been pinned up in elegant sweeping waves.

Her features were strangely familiar, something about the way she smiled. Or maybe it was the brown hair and red eyes – Lena had similar coloring and Elias wondered what his friend dressed up as for Halloween. Probably a costume that allowed her to keep her pigtails. She was strangely attached to that hairstyle and he couldn’t imagine her changing it to something like what the girl before him had achieved.

“I’m okay,” she said. Then her eyes widened and she exclaimed, “Oh, it’s you Elias!”

Wait. That voice.

“…Lena?!” Elias said, shocked.

She grinned.

He stared. What… How…

“I’m going as a princess,” she said proudly, giving a little twirl. The shimmering white billowed gently and the net of gems in her hair glittered like stars.

“It’s a very good costume,” he managed, trying not to stare. What a transformation!

“Thanks,” she said, blushing. She patted the material of the dress proprietorially, and smiled a little secret smile. “Klaus picked it out for me.”

“He has good taste,” Elias said.

She beamed at him. “I’ll pass that on.”

“…” Elias couldn’t quite bring himself to say that he’d rather she not do that.

“Anyway, Elias, what are you going as? I haven’t seen anything like your costume before at all!” she said.

“I’m going as King Tutankhamen,” Elias explained. “His tomb was found by an archaeologist in a faraway desert kingdom. It was filled with priceless treasure of great historical and cultural significance.”

“That’s so cool!” she said, appropriately awed.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling. He appreciated her reaction and really, maybe Halloween wasn’t so bad. It was nice to make one of his friends so happy.

“Um, but Elias, do you need a little help with that?” she gestured at the bandage ends trailing on the ground. “Or is that part of the costume?”

“No, it isn’t,” Elias admitted, a little embarrassed. “Actually, could you help me grab that end? I think I need to tuck it in here so it doesn’t keep falling apart.”

“Mm, I think so too,” she said, and rummaged in her bag. “I think I have something that can help with that.”

After a minute, she held up a couple safety pins with a triumphant air. “Aha! See, if you use these it should hold them in place.”

“Won’t the safety pins show?” he asked.

“No, it won’t,” Lena said confidently. “See, if you do this…”

She grabbed one of the loose bandages and threaded the needle-point of the pin through it at an angle, before attaching it to the main mass of wrappings around his torso. He peered down, astonished. He didn’t see a single glint of silver at all.

“You’re really good at this,” he said, somewhat surprised. Lena was something of an airhead, so he didn’t expect her to have something like this on hand or to handle the situation with such an uncharacteristic confidence.

“I like sewing,” she explained, a slight furrow in her brow as she attempted to pin another loose end without poking Elias.

“I see.” That did make sense. She did seem to do well on subjects she liked.

Lena finished attaching the last trailing end and stood up, smoothing out her dress. She smiled at him. “Want to go down to the celebration together?”

“Sure,” he said, smiling in return. They headed down the flights of stairs companionably. He had a feeling like he’d forgotten something for some reason, but he couldn’t say what. When they reached the base of the stairs, he saw a tall figure in a dark cloak and top hat standing beneath the chandelier.

Lena brightened, practically leaping down the last few steps to reach him.

“Klaus!” she cried.

His brother! He’d forgotten his brother; of course he would be attending the celebration with his girlfriend. Though it was technically a holiday, his status as Prefect meant he had to come and at least minimally supervise the party to ensure that nothing untoward happened. Elias stared at him, taking in the formal clothes and the hint of fang. Then he looked at Lena’s dress and remembered what she’d said about her costume.

“C-Count Dracula?!” Elias stammered.

Klaus looked at him through his monocle, amused. “Astute as ever, Elias. I see you’re going as a mummy. Tutankhamen, I presume?”

“…Yes.”

“Hmm. Not bad, Elias.”

…He couldn’t figure out if that was an approval or insult.

His brother turned back to Lena. “What are you doing here?”

“Elias had a little trouble with his costume,” she said, happily unaware of Elias’ growing horror and mortification. “I helped him out.”

Klaus sighed. “No, I meant what are you doing _here_ in the building when you’re supposed to be out where we agreed to meet?”

“I tripped into Elias when I was coming down,” she said.

An evil knowing smirk curved his lips as he looked towards Elias.

“I think it’s likely _he_ tripped into _you._ ”

Ugh! Elias thought despondently. Why was his brother so perceptive and annoyingly right all the time?!

“U-Umm…” Lena trailed off, looking at him sympathetically.

“We’ll see you later, Elias. Come on,” he said, taking Lena’s hand. She gave him one last feeling look and a mouthed a ‘sorry’ at him before she left with Klaus, passing through the stone archway exiting outside.

He felt something in him wilt a little at his brother’s words, but that was nothing new. Klaus took an extreme approach to the idea of ‘tough love.’ In fact, Elias thought he was in a rather good mood tonight. He took the murmuring thought about what it _meant_ for his brother and Lena to wear matching costumes and attend the party together and firmly squashed it. No, he was definitely not thinking about this. For heaven’s sake, this was his _brother_ and his _friend_. He knew they were dating and it was serious, but still!

Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the presence coming up behind him.

“Boo,” said the voice right in his ear.

“AAAAaaaahhh!!” Elias screeched, arms pinwheeling.

He landed on his rump and looked up to see Luca holding his sides and laughing so hard tears came to his eyes.

“Y-You!” he threatened incoherently.

“Geez, loosen up a little,” Luca smirked. He’d looked surprised for a moment when he’d faced Elias, but that emotion was soon tucked away as though it’d never appeared. “That’s an interesting costume.”

“I’m going as King Tutankhamen,” Elias said.

“I figured,” Luca said. “I’m Death by the way.” He spread his arms dramatically. The metal blade of the scythe shone in the magic globes lighting the landing.

“Please tell me that isn’t a real scythe,” Elias said.

Luca laughed. “What, this?” he said, knocking the blade against a stone wall. It clunked dully. “It’s real enough, but it doesn’t have any edges.”

Elias let out a relieved breath. At least Luca wasn’t _that_ irresponsible.

But that strange expression returned to Luca’s face again, and he said, “That’s a pretty risqué outfit you got there, Elias. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

“What does that mean?” he snapped, irritated. Seriously, why did everyone give him these looks when they saw him in this perfectly respectable costume?

Luca eyed him for a moment before he grinned widely. “Aww, come on man, don’t tell me you don’t know what everyone’s going to think when they see you in that?”

“I don’t understand what’s going on in your head right now, but it’s undoubtedly inappropriate,” Elias said firmly. Nothing that came out of Luca’s mouth was any good. He’d fallen for his tricks the hard way, and he wasn’t going to let Luca ruin what might be the first Halloween celebration he actually _enjoyed_.

“Luca’s not wrong,” Yukiya said. He’d somehow separated from the shadows in a seamless move that surprised Elias a little – he hadn’t noticed him there, though he was wearing a rather obvious wolf costume with ragged clothes. “It is a little revealing.”

Horrified, Elias stared at Yukiya. “Wait, what?”

“It’s a little revealing,” Yukiya repeated obligingly.

“People might get the wrong impression. Like your fans, yeah?” Luca said, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

“Yukiya,” Elias turned to him desperately. “It’s not that bad, right?”

“…” Yukiya said.

Elias had the sudden urge to run into his closet and hide there forever. He’d already probably embarrassed himself in front of his brother and his friends – Klaus wouldn’t say anything unless it was extremely inappropriate – in fact he’d probably congratulate Elias for thinking outside the box for once, Lena was too nice to think or say mean things, Yukiya wouldn’t say anything purposefully mean but could be trusted to be honest to a fault, and Luca wasn’t all that nice, period.

…He could probably trust Luca to tell the truth this once. Maybe.

“WhatamIgoingtodo?” he said.

“Whoa, buddy,” Luca raised a hand, alarmed. “What was that again?”

“What am I going to do?!” Elias said, almost wailing. He didn’t want to be indecent!

“Err,” Luca said, for once at a loss. Yukiya looked at them both and sighed.

“Luca,” he commanded. “Give him your cloak.”

“Whaaat? But this is part of my costume!” he protested.

Yukiya didn’t say anything but his expression made it clear what he thought should be done.

Luca gave up his cloak.

Woefully, Elias wrapped himself in it. “Is it okay now?” he asked.

“Yes,” Yukiya said.

Luca sulked, tugging at the loose sweater vest he had on and gripping his makeshift scythe possessively.

“I’m not giving up my scythe,” he said.

“No one wants your scythe,” said Elias and Yukiya.

 

* * *

 

“I can’t believe you didn’t realize how revealing your costume is,” Luca complained. He was still sore about losing his cloak. He waved irritably at Elias’ chest, now swathed in folds of heavy black fabric. “Seriously, most of your abs are showing!”

“Shut up,” said Elias.

Yukiya shrugged, looking preoccupied. The main green was located away from the main school building, surrounded by the wings of classrooms. He was looking down one of the corridors joined to the one they traveled.

“What is it, Yukiya?” asked Elias, concerned.

“Someone’s coming this way,” he said flatly. Elias drew unconsciously closer, drawing the cloak tighter to himself. Even Luca looked a little wary. The Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy was as safe a place as any, but if someone like that Hinomoto student could practice dark magic and escape capture, it wasn’t illogical to think that another student might decide to do something on Halloween. Halloween, or All Hallows’ Eve, was a night with darker traditions than its current form of revelry and celebration suggested.

Sure enough, they soon heard the footsteps that Yukiya heard first. They huddled closer when they saw a blurry figure in the distance.

As it drew closer, they saw it was a pink-haired older student running full tilt. He skidded to a stop when he saw Elias’ costume. His shoulders and head, wrapped in bandages, still showed above the cloak and the electrum collar gleamed faintly. The strange student was dressed fantastically as a devil in a waiter’s outfit, two horns and a tail protruding from his head and pants.

“Whoa, that’s so cool!” he said. “What are you supposed to be?”

Elias started to reply, but Yukiya said bluntly, “A death mummy.”

“That’s awesome!” he said. “I didn’t know there was a magical creature like a death mummy! Hey Taffy, did you know that?” he called down the corridor.

A stuffed bear-thing peeked its head around the corner ahead and said in a childishly cute voice, “No, master. What’s that?”

“I don’t know either, but let’s find out!” he said. “Come here, I think I can make you into one!”

“Nooooooo!” wailed the little animated plush, and the chase resumed as they sprinted into the distance.

“…” said Elias.

“…” said Luca.

“…” said Yukiya.

After a moment of shared, silent confusion Luca said, “Let’s forget that happened.”

“Okay,” Elias said.

“…” agreed Yukiya.

 

* * *

 

By the time they reached the green, the fireworks had begun. In honor of the occasion, giant blooms of orange sparks lit the night sky in the shapes of Jack-O-Lanterns and pumpkins while green dotted out the features of witches and wizards and strange glowing cauldrons. The crowd of students gathered in clumps here and there, some underneath trees and others out on the open grass. Some were dancing, and some had congregated around the buffet table and busy stuffing themselves with festive food. He saw that Lena and his brother occupied one of the raised patios lining the area. They waved briefly at him before returning to what looked like an intimate conversation.

“This place sure is stuffed,” observed Luca, craning his head around.

“They got here early,” said Yukiya. “I’m not surprised if they got all the good spots.”

“Nah,” Luca said. He started to walk towards one of the trees, a scrubby thing that was stuck stubbornly at medium height with disreputable branches. “We just have to use our imaginations a bit and make our own spot.” He climbed up, settling himself on one of the sturdy middle branches, high enough to get a good view without endangering himself if he fell off.

“Well?” he grinned. “What’re you waiting for?”

Elias fumbled a little with the cloak as he tried to get a good grip. A hand came into view, and he saw that Yukiya had already (so quickly?) situated himself on a good thick branch.

“Here,” he offered, and Elias took his hand gratefully.

“Thanks,” he said, and Yukiya smiled a little.

“No problem.”

Despite the fact that his costume wasn’t entirely the success he wanted it to be or that Luca was a certifiable jerk, Elias found himself smiling. Lena had the right idea. Some celebrations improved with time – at least he now had a better memory of Halloween celebrations than his childhood trauma -- and he rather liked the idea of spending time with his friends. Luca wasn’t off doing questionable things for once and Yukiya wasn’t weathering out one of his monthly illnesses, weak and worryingly quiet.

Luca was obviously getting cold and he rubbed his arms. “Say, do you think I can get that--“

“Hush,” said Elias, leaning against the trunk. Luca spluttered indignantly, but he didn’t say anything as he caught sight of the rare smile on Elias’ face. Certain that Luca wouldn’t start whining again, Yukiya broke off eyeing Luca’s branch he’d wanted to dump him on the ground.

“Next year?” asked Yukiya, the beginnings of a smile curving his lips as well.

“Next year,” Elias agreed, feeling the warm happy glow in his chest that came from time well-spent with his friends.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m really worried about my Luca portrayal, because grinding through the last part of Azusa’s route killed something inside me and I was writing this when that happened. Hopefully he’s not OOC? I think he’s the type of person who would really like and get really excited about Halloween, so he’d be a bit annoyed that Elias took over a part of his perfectly planned costume. I also hope Yukiya came out okay; I haven’t played his route so I’m going entirely by speed-reading through his playthrough videos. XD


End file.
